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Marius thinking about Valjean and Cosette's relationships, and Cosette getting out of Valjean's Nest. Volume 5, Book 7, Chapter 2.

Clips from <Il cuore di Cosette>.

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III.ii.8 Les deux ne font pas la paire

Two Do Not Make a Pair: Wilbour, Wraxall, Hapgood, Gray, FMA, Rose

Two, But Not of a Kind: Denny

Two Do Not Make a Matching Pair: Donougher

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III.ii.7 Règle : Ne recevoir personne que le soir

Rule:—Never Recieve Anybody Except in the Evening: Wilbour

Rule: No One Received Until Evening: Wraxall

Rule: Receive No One Except in the Evening: Hapgood

Rule: Never Recieve Any One Except in the Evening: Gray

A Golden Rule: Never Recieve Visitors Except in the Evening: Denny

Rule: Never Recieve Anybody Except in the Evening: FMA

Golden Rule: Only Recieve Visitors in the Evening: Rose

Rule: No Visitors Before Evening: Donougher

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III.ii.6 Où l’on entrevoit la Magnon et ses deux petits

In Which We See La Magnon and Her Two Little Ones: Wilbour, FMA

Magnon and Her Two Little Ones: Wraxall

In Which Magnon and Her Two Children Are Seen: Hapgood

In Which One Sees La Magnon and Her Two Little Ones: Gray

We See La Magnon and Her Two Children: Denny

In Which We Catch a Glimpse of La Magnon and Her Two Little Boys: Rose

Affording a Glimpse of La Magnon and her Two Little Boys: Donougher

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III.ii.4 Aspirant centenaire

Wilbour and FMA have “An Inspiring Centenarian”, which I don’t think is really what this chapter title is going for and I really hope nobody is inspired by Gillenormand, because. yikes

An Inspiring Centenarian: Wilbour, FMA

An Aspiring Centenarian: Wraxall, Denny, Rose, Donougher

A Centenarian Aspirant: Hapgood

Centenarian Aspirations: Gray

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III.ii.3 Luc-Esprit

Luke Esprit: Wilbour

Luc Esprit: Wraxall

Luc-Esprit: Hapgood, Gray, Denny, FMA, Rose, Donougher

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The one, in which Marius attempts to make sense of what Jean Valjean told him but fails. Marius mirrors his entire social class with all its prejudices, myopia, and resultant callousness. Hugo is showing how it works in minute details. He refrains from judgment while suggesting that Marius will eventually grasp the truth and alter his perspective toward outcasts like Valjean. (In doing so, Hugo assumes a somewhat guru-like role.)

[Now it’s me lecturing.] The acquisition of empathy was a challenging lesson. Historically, people often felt empathy for their equals. Yet, it was the Enlightenment, with its sensitivities, novels, moral philosophies, and debates about the abolition of torture and the death sentence, that began to instil a degree of sympathy within the higher classes toward those socially beneath them. Adam Smith wrote about empathy, noting how it allows us to sense the agony of a criminal facing torture. However, it didn't suffice to generate sympathy toward social outcasts and criminals among the upper echelons of society. Thus, Hugo continued to advocate for this cause in the second half of the nineteenth century. [End of lecture.]

However, even knowing this context, it is hard to read about Marius’ reasoning and the erroneous conclusions he draws about Jean Valjean. Marius didn't even listen to Valjean's story—there were numerous points that could have facilitated better understanding, empathy, and connection. Yet, for Marius, Valjean isn't even human; he is a wolf, a night, a nettle. The only aspect that made Marius a bit doubtful is Valjean's ability to raise someone as perfect and kind as Cosette. Regrettably, Marius fails to draw the right conclusions from this observation. Oh, Marius, Marius…

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les mis using ai images at the arena tour … disappointing :/

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You've got your Javert-Éponine parallels and your Javert-Valjean parallels; now get ready for Javert-Marius parallels!

Both of them are faced with Valjean's dual identities, but the reveals are flipped: Javert, introduced to Valjean as a convict first, is shocked by his kindness. Marius, who only knew him as simply Cosette's kindly father, is horrified by his criminal past. Despite these inverse reveals, however, both have similar reactions: they refuse to accept the fact that ideals and/or people can be comprised of contrasting, contradicting parts.

With Javert, being saved by Valjean spurs him on to realise that the law is not always right, and that convicts are not all horrid; his beliefs can no longer be as black-and-white as they were. In another universe, this realisation would have started Javert on a different path of life but instead, he refuses to accept this, leading to his death.

With Marius, much of his inability to understand that such complexities exist comes when comparing Valjean to Cosette. He acknowledges that:

Jean Valjean had labored over Cosette. He had, to some extent, made that soul. [...] The workman was horrible; but the work was admirable.

Marius knows that, in some aspects at the very least, his perfect Cosette was shaped by this "horrible" workman. But these conflicting descriptions continue to perplex him:

What melancholy sport of Providence was that which had placed that child in contact with that man? Are there then chains for two which are forged on high? and does God take pleasure in coupling the angel with the demon? So a crime and an innocence can be room-mates in the mysterious galleys of wretchedness?

He cannot understand why and how Valjean – a supposedly dangerous felon – could be bonded with the pure and innocent Cosette. Outside of Cosette, even, Marius still cannot comprehend the fact that innocence and crime can coexist within the same space, the same household, the same body. Valjean himself is a host of crime and kindness, and Marius cannot understand how that can be so.

And because he cannot understand how, he refuses to accept that Valjean could possibly be more complex than he realises:

He sought to dull his senses rather than to gain further light. [...] he bore off Cosette in his arms and shut his eyes to Jean Valjean.

Like Javert, Marius thinks One Thought and then immediately refuses to expand upon it and simply doubles down on his fear. Here is where Hugo's biasedness for Marius can be seen though as we are told that:

He had not yet accomplished all progress, we admit. He had not yet come to distinguish between that which is written by man and that which is written by God, between law and right. [...] He still stood at this point, though safe to advance infallibly later on, since his nature was good, and, at bottom, wholly formed of latent progress.

The last line hints that Marius will eventually break away Javert's similar line of thinking since "his nature was good" (which then begs the question, is Javert's nature then simply just unable to eventually accept this change in thinking? Is his nature "bad"?). A relief, I suppose, but it doesn't help the fact that right now, his prejudice continues to lead his thinking and behaviour, blinding him to the reality of society that he had but a glimpse at.

All in all, Javert and Marius were both so close to getting it. But Javert would rather die than accept it, and Marius would rather let Valjean die than accept it as well. Such a frustrating and tragic pair.

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Bradley Jaden as Javert in One day more will always make me think of this quote from the book :

Javert up to that moment had remained erect, motionless, with his eyes fixed on the ground, cast athwart this scene like some displaced statue, which is waiting to be put away somewhere.

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Les Mis Hidden Name Meanings: Jean Valjean

Every Les Mis character’s name is either a pun or has some deep symbolic meaning– or both at once! Jean Valjean’s name has a ton of layers so let’s dive in.

When we’re first introduced to him, Hugo tells us that his name is quote “a contraction of voilà Jean, or “here is Jean.”” We’re told that he was named after his father, and that his family name probably began as a nickname.

The word “Jean” in french sounds like the word “gens,” which means “people.” So his last name is a pun meant to make you think “viola les gens”/ “here are people.”

The most obvious layer to his name is that Jean Valjean is basically John Doe. He is the anonymous Everyman. His sister’s name is Jeanne, so she’s basically Jane Doe. They aren’t special or exceptional or unusual; they’re just behold! The regular people.

In fact his name is so common-sounding that it's a plot point. Champmathieu, the man who is mistaken for Jean Valjean, has a name that the police connect with his. Javert theorizes that "Champ" is a version of "Jean" in a specific accent, while Mathieu was actually Jean Valjean's sister's maiden name. ("Champ" is also the French word for "field.") The fact that Jean Valjean is a peasant everyman makes it easy for others in his position to be conflated with him.

But the other layer is that this is all an elaborate pun biblical reference!

When Pontius Pilate presents a bound Jesus Christ to the crowd before his crucifixion, he says the words “ecce homo” or “Here is the man!”/”behold the man!”

“Voila Jean” or “here is Jean!”/”behold Jean!” is meant to be a reference to that.

During his death scene Jean Voila-Jean even references the “Ecce homo” line explicitly, gesturing at a crucifix and saying:

“Voilà le grand martyr.”

Which Isabel Hapgood translates as “behold the great martyr.”

At another point in the same scene Marius says to Cosette:

“He has sacrificed himself. Viola l’Homme. Behold the man.”

But more references to that biblical moment appear throughout the novel; Jean Valjean is associated with it constantly, all the time. It’s one of his defining biblical allusions. He’ll be trying to live anonymously, or under an alias– and then suddenly his true name and criminal past will be revealed, he’ll be revealed to be ‘the man,’ and some great horrible act of martyrdom will follow.

Sometimes Jean Valjean is the one revealing his own identity, but sometimes Inspector Javert is put into the role of Pontius Pilate. Javert himself explicitly makes that comparison– Jean Valjean as Jesus, Javert as Pontius Pilate– when he’s contemplating suicide.

And this ties into one of the largest differences between the book and the stage musical.

In the musical, “prisoner 24601” is the name that represents Jean Valjean’s dehumanization–while “Jean Valjean” is the name he uses while standing up for his own humanity. He will be called 24601, and proudly declare that “my name is Jean Valjean” to assert he’s still a person.

And while this is a great storytelling choice, it’s almost the opposite of how the name “Jean Valjean” is handled in the book.

Because in the book…. Jean Valjean IS the name that dehumanizes him. Jean Valjean is the name that he’s running from. The name that Javert uses when he’s insulting him, the name that bigots use when they’re threatening him, the name that ignorant people use when they’re mocking him – it’s not 24601, it’s Jean Valjean.

And there’s a special kind of agony to that.

The name that is being used to torture, humiliate, and dehumanize him isn’t 24601– it’s his name.

He thinks of it as a “fatal name,” as a punishment. Living under that name is living in hell. When Jean Valjean is living under one of his aliases, concealing his identity, he thinks:

That which he had always feared most of all in his hours of self-communion, during his sleepless nights, was to ever hear that name {jean Valjean] pronounced; he had said to himself, that that would be the end of all things for him; that on the day when that name made its reappearance it would cause his new life to vanish from about him, and—who knows?—perhaps even his new soul from within him.

It’s no wonder that he ends up internalizing the way society views him, and developing so much fear and hatred of himself. He’s grown to see his name as just….well, ecce homo, behold the man. His name is just the two words people say before they violently punish him.

Names and namelessness are a major theme in Les Mis, and he’s the character who has the most complex relationship with his own names. He has a legal name, but it’s used to torture him, and he has a series of false names he uses to escape torture.

If I were to describe Jean Valjean– one of the most complex characters in all of literature, in one word, that word would be “grief.”

The criminal justice system takes everything from him, including things he wasn’t aware he was able to lose. His name, the last connection he had to his family and his old identity, gets warped into this thing needs to view with fear and horror. The thing society despises isn’t 24601, isn’t a number they’ve placed on him – the thing they despise is Jean Valjean, some intrinsic inherent part of himself. He isn’t hated for what he did, he’s hated for what he is, and that is something he can never escape.

{But speaking of complexity we’ve actually barely scratched the surface of how Jean Valjean reacts to names, because he spends most of the novel living under a series of nicknames aliases. And guess what! Each of these names also has some elaborate symbolic meaning! If you’re interested in more posts covering his different aliases, feel free to leave a comment in the replies!}

[thanks for reading! For more in-depth analysis, check out the @lesmisletters readalong or join our discord server!]

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As much as I hate Marius’ reaction to Valjean’s confession, I do like how his thought process is portrayed. Firstly, it’s nice because of the time for introspection. Marius is (understandably) shocked, and I like how he considers how his own traits could have contributed to the situation. He’s right that he should have talked to Cosette about the Gorbeau ambush. And he’s right that he wasn’t thinking clearly during his time with Cosette. I wish he spent more time examining how he should feel about Valjean rather than immediately condemning him as an ex-convict (I think Valjean did mention stealing bread, so his crime was alluded to, but it’s fair if Marius isn’t certain if that’s the extent of what he did; still, I think he should focus more on trying to understand this past Valjean and reconciling him with the present Valjean, i.e. Cosette’s father), but his self-reflection here is a sign of maturity. And it’s kind of moving to see Marius be self-aware like that after watching him grow up.

I also like this part:

“Here, for Marius, there was a strange reversal of situations. What breathed from M. Fauchelevent? distrust. What did Jean Valjean inspire? confidence.”

I still think Marius’ suspicions around Fauchelevent are class-based – not in the sense of overt prejudice, but in knowing that something’s off about him for a man of his status and not being able to say why. I like, though, that Jean Valjean is seen as the trustworthy one and that he’s aware of this incongruence. In a sense, it’s true. Jean Valjean’s aliases are all good people, but they are, as Hugo says, “masks.” Valjean is his true identity, and his true identity is still trustworthy.

I find the line about pursuing Valjean funny as well because it reminds me of Javert trying to capture him. Post-crisis, the only one capable of pursuing Valjean and catching him is Jean Valjean himself. 

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Happy Man-Precipice Day to all who celebrate!

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Marius after Valjean's Confession. Volume 5, Book 7, Chapter 2.

Clips from <Il cuore di Cosette>.

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Les Mis 5.7.2

RETURN OF THE NETTLE METAPHOR!!!

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